In December 1991, while at the World Bank, Summers signed a memo that was leaked to the press. Lant Pritchett has claimed authorship of the private memo, which both he and Summers say was intended as sarcasm. The memo stated that "the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that . . . I've always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly underpolluted."^[9]

- Lawrence Summers, once President of Harvard, once chief economist at the world bank, once 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton, once Director of the White House ,United States National Economic Council for President Barack Obama until November 2010.